The present invention relates to a safety system including a body-worn camera system and a weapon holster having a transmitter and, more particularly, to flagging a video taken by a body-worn camera (“body cam(s)”) based on activation of the transmitter disposed on the weapon holster.
The recent emergence of body-worn cameras has already had an impact on policing, and this impact will only increase as more agencies adopt this technology. The decision to implement body-worn cameras is being done nation-wide.
Body-worn cameras, which an increasing number of law enforcement agencies are adopting, represent one new form of technology that is significantly affecting the field of policing. Law enforcement agencies are using body-worn cameras in various ways: to improve evidence collection, to strengthen officer performance and accountability, to enhance agency transparency, to document encounters between police and the public, and to investigate and resolve complaints and officer-involved incidents.
Due to the increase in body-worn cameras, there has also been an increase in the amount, need and time to analyze the video for content of incidents. This task is currently extremely costly and taxing on individuals.
Conventionally, body cams constantly record video and it is difficult to find the exact time and date of the video when an incident occurs. Also, the user (i.e., police officer) has had no way to flag the video to indicate that an incident is occurring even if the gun is not un-holstered.
Moreover, the time it takes when there is an incident of police shooting, to review hours of camera time to review is very taxing (monotonous, etc.) and takes great amount of time and expense. Also, there is not an instant notification when the gun is un-holstered.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an improved way to detect when an incident has occurred, thereby to reduce the money and time spent on analyzing body camera videos.